192 
Observations on the varioiis Insects 
From the beetles thus seeking the roots of the wheat I was led to 
believe that they there deposited their eggs ; consequently, on the 
14th of June, I emptied the garden-pot, and found two Elaters 
dead at the roots of the wheat, but I could not detect either eggs 
or recently-hatched Wireworms. On the 1 7th of May, two spe- 
cimens of Jl. rujicaudis (fig. 12) were found upon the wheat- 
leaves, also E. sputator (pi. J, fig. 31), and E. marffinatus (fig. 
SG) ; on the 31st, one of E. murinus (fig. 32), four of E. fulvipes 
(fig. 33),* one of E. lineatus (fig. 26), and one of E. sputator, as 
well as others in the hedge surrounding the field ; and it is pro- 
bable that if any one had searched the clover-fields, the oats, or 
the barley and clover fields, the Elaters would have been found in 
great numbers ; for, as we have stated, wheat after clover- lays is 
more devoured by the Wireworms than after anything else, and 
they had worked both the barley and oats when young in that 
locality. June 2nd, received about twenty specnnens of E. linea- 
tus, found in the evening in a wheat-field in the same neighbour- 
hood ; buton June 16th the Elaters were no longer abundant there : 
they had j)aired ; after which the males, I expect, died ; and the 
females, 1 imagine, had entered the earth to lay their eggs: and 
I hope that some one more fortunate than myself will soon prove 
whether such is their economy. 
At the same time I placed in another garden-pot, having wheat 
and a potato growing in it, some of the larvae or Wireworms. On 
examining the plants on the 14th of June I found the base of the 
stalks perforated, the worms had descended 2 or 3 inches deep, 
where they had formed cells (fig. 10), as if they were inclined to 
change to pupae, and the earth was lull of their burrows. Having 
kept the pot in a saucer of water, they thrived well, but others 
not kept moist invariably died ; if they had not been unseasonably 
disturbed I have no doubt they would have undergone their 
regular metamorphoses, for on the 26th of July some kept by a 
friend in a pot had cast their dark skins, and were become white 
pupa; like fig. 11. Having had opportunities of examining a very 
large number of Wireworms, 1 am able to state that some are nearly 
destitute of hairs, especially the smaller ones, which appear to me 
to be the most numerous. My oj)ini{)n is that the smaller ones 
are very often the larva' of E. lineatus and E. obsairus, and the 
larger ones of E. rujicaudis, and some may belong to the smaller 
species of Elaters which will be hereafter figured and described. 
Eofafoes suffer greatly in some counties from the Wireworm, 
whilst in others, where that animal equally abounds amongst the 
tni nijis, the potato-crops escape. This is a very remarkable fact, 
and resembles the curious anomalies in the black cateri)ill<ar, 
* These four insects will be figured in the next plate, which will appear 
in the succeeding Number, 
